Infallibility Of Apostles

[dairygirl4u2c]

i've heard it said, i thought as common knowledge, that the apostles were all infallible. if this is true, why did their successors not have that gift, only peter's did?
is it they were only infallible when they wrote, when they wrote what was to be in the bible?
what's the catholic thought on this?
how does matthew 18 play into it 'whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven...' etc etc. (is that only in reference to excommunicating someone or, how does it play into it)

Edited February 12, 2011 by dairygirl4u2c

[Deb]

.[b][i][size="4"]Infallibility.[/size][/i][/b] One of the consequences of the Church's being apostolic is that she must necessarily be infallible in teaching the essentials of faith and morals. Otherwise, Christ would have left her in open contradiction. On the one hand He obliged His followers to accept the teaching of Peter and the apostles as a necessary condition for salvation. On the other hand, He would not have assured His Church of proclaiming the truth, which alone deserves to be accepted and followed, if He had not endowed her with infallibility.

He told the apostles: "If anyone does not . . . listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. I tell you solemnly, on the day of Judgment it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom and Gomorrah as with that town" (Matthew 10:14-15). Later on, he told Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19).

Infallibility is preservation from error. Properly speaking, only persons can be infallible. When they teach infallibly, their teaching may also be said to be infallible, although more accurately it is irreversible. What has once been taught infallibly cannot be substantially changed or reversed. Truth is essentially unchangeable.

The primary source of infallible teaching is the successor of St. Peter, when he intends to bind the consciences of all believers in matters of faith or morals. What he thus teaches is irreversible because of its very nature and not because others in the Church agree with him. This was solemnly defined by the First Vatican Council.

At the Second Vatican Council, the doctrine of infallibility was further refined. Individual bishops, the council declared, are not infallible:

[indent]Yet, when, in the course of their authentic teaching on faith or morals, they agree on one position to be held as definitive, they are proclaiming infallibly the teaching of Christ. This happens when, though scattered throughout the world, they observe the bond of fellowship tying them to each other and to Peter's successor ([i]Constitution on the Church[/i], III, 25). [/indent]In other words, the Holy Spirit guides the successors of the apostles as teachers of the truth, provided they are united among themselves and under the Bishop of Rome.

Binding and loosing is referring to the forgiveness of sins. Absolution.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Deb

[dairygirl4u2c]

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[Groo the Wanderer]

dunno where you got that DG.  hoping yer not just setting up strawmen at this point

 

 

 

The teaching office 85-87, 2032-2040

888   Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task “to preach the Gospel of God to all men,” in keeping with the Lord’s command.⁴¹⁵ They are “heralds of faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers” of the apostolic faith “endowed with the authority of Christ.”⁴¹⁶ (2068)

889   In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a “supernatural sense of faith” the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium, “unfailingly adheres to this faith.”⁴¹⁷ (92)

890   The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms: (851, 1785)

891   â€œThe Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful—who confirms his brethren in the faith—he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,” above all in an Ecumenical Council.⁴¹⁸ When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine “for belief as being divinely revealed,”⁴¹⁹ and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions “must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.”⁴²⁰ This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.⁴²¹

892   Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful “are to adhere to it with religious assent”⁴²² which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.

 

Nothing here stating the Apostles were infallible in everything. Just what is says above is what the Church has taught for the last 2000 yrs....

heck - even St. Paul had to correct St. Peter, the Pope....

 

Keep in mind that the Pope has made spoken infallibly on very very few occasions...